The initial phase of the Project was a series of meetings held in the Fall of 1990, both with the Taper artistic staff and qualified and interested actors, to define both the goals and the obstacles of the undertaking. Then at the beginning of 1991, founders Dakin Matthews and Lillian Groag selected thirty-six actors to form a pilot group.

After a year of exploration, mostly through Monday night discussions, lectures, exercises, workshops, and play readings, the Project members re-formed as the Antaeus Company.

From 1992 through 1995, the Company operated as an ensemble, participating in professional readings and stagings sponsored by the Taper, by the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, and by the Audrey Skirbal-Kenis Theatre Foundation. After a series of Equity workshops concentrating on the classics, the Company made its professional debut on the mainstage of the Mark Taper Forum with its critically acclaimed production of Chekhov's The Wood Demon, in a world premiere translation by two Company members, Nicholas Saunders and Frank Dwyer.

In 1995, the Company officially formed as a non-profit corporation, and in 1996 produced its first independent production, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men at the Ventura Court Theatre in Studio City. The Company also leased space in NoHo Arts District, where it relocated its offices, and initiated plans to turn a warehouse into a fully operational, classical studio theatre

The Antaeus Company is now an independent theatre ensemble, which still enjoys the support and encouragement of the Center Theatre Group, and which--for seven years--has never wavered from its ultimate goal--to form a fully professional, world-class, permanent resident classical ensemble in the City of Los Angeles.